Freedom!

Our newest news is that we have a new party room at Buckingham Palace. With Buck starting his own business and needing a quiet office at home, we officially turned John's bed back into a crib so he had no choice but to sleep in his big bed (or on the floor). The problem with that is that Eve has had a hard time getting to sleep for a nap. Mostly because John has been climbing in her crib and using it as a trampoline. SO, yesterday we took the front off Eve's crib to convert it to a day bed. Last night was the first night of FREEDOM (and PARTY!). I think it'll go fine...just not sure if either of them will get much sleep until the novely wears off. At least both seem to enjoy it.

Working backwards in time (and I'll post pictures as best I can later), this Monday (1/4/10) we had our ultrasound and got to see Baby Buck #3 again! Every time I've looked at how large I am, I swear there are two in there; although I've felt a decent amount of movement already, and it only feels like one. Well, it's official...I've just eaten way too many Christmas cookies. Definitely only one. Whew! I was to go on the record with this disclaimer about the ultrasound. For John and Eve we were sent to a fancy place, like a luxury salon. This was done in the doctor's office with lower tech equipment. SO, number 3, when you're wondering "Why didn't I get a video or many pictures...third one always gets the shaft!", well, we came equipped with DVDs and video tapes, but they just don't have the equipment. Not our fault. I was disappointed that we didn't get many pictures, but unlike John and Eve, this baby was moving all over the place, and we really couldn't get a good shot except a cute profile. We had decided to leave gender a surprise, but it was really tough not to look. The nurse said, "If you don't want to know, I'm about to get to that area, so don't look". It was so tempting to peek. Instead, she gave us a report of "gender - normal". At least that's good to know. Everything looked perfect and healthy, but because she kept saying to look away, we missed a lot of the ultrasound. We'll just have to wait a few more months to get a perfect view. So exciting. The only disappointment was John when he found out for sure he wasn't going to get both a baby John and a baby Eve. He still hasn't come to terms with it.

Working further back, we had a fun time ringing in the new year at a friend's party. The kids had a blast, then we came home and put them and us to bed well before the ball dropped. Well, we kept one eye open on the TV screen for good measure, but that's about all.

The week between Christmas and New Years was interesting. We had no heat in the house. We blocked off our room and had a space heater running, so we camped together for 4 nights. The first night was lots of fun...movie night, eating a picnic on the floor, camping out in Mama and Daddy's room, then spending the morning together as a family. Needless to say, the excitement wore off and we ended up spending a good bit of time at friends' and Grandma's house. John and Eve got to have a sleepover with Bella and Marco at Grandma's house and they had a ball! They really love spending time together, and it's fun to watch the cousins bond. Meanwhile we went to see a quick glimpse of Bella in the move "The Blindside". Cute movie, and neat to see her on the big screen. Just a few days prior I was standing at the sink and all of a sudden looked up to see her in a Haverty's (furniture) commercial. Neat.

Christmas was a blast. John has completely fallen into the trap of thinking Christmas is all about presents no matter how much we talk about Jesus. I don't think there's much of a way around that without taking drastic measures. It was so much fun to watch the kids, though. Christmas Eve we went to church (wound up at the second church we tried because ours had already filled up!) The kids actually did really well in the service thanks to the flashlights passed out at the very beginning. We had a little sugar snack and hot chocolate when we got home, dressed in our Christmas PJs, put out Santa's cookies, and headed to bed. John was in a big hurry to get to bed so Santa could come. He urged us to hurry as well. They were worn out, so they fell asleep pretty quickly. I didn't sleep hardly at all because I was so excited! Seriously. The kids woke up right around 7, normal time, and we headed downstairs for some mayhem. John knew exactly what to do. Eve took a while to catch on, but certainly became a champion unwrapper by the time we were through. Mom joined us for all, and it was lots of fun. Later in the day we went to Amy and Ryan's for a short while and had fun playing with cousins. Boy, Christmas is fun! We had a hard time convincing John that it was OK to take down the decorations and the trees, but we're still working on convincing him of the lights. We will soon be "those neighbors", but he loves them.

I suppose the only other thing to report is that John missed his Christmas party (I was so excited I was going to get to go) because he got pink eye. We've now passed it to almost everyone in the family along with our cold. Bummer on the Christmas party, but we had our own fun at home to make up for it.